Jean Vanier

“Jean Vanier, humanist, philosopher, theologian, man of letters is first and foremost described by his companions as a man with heart, a man of compassion. He is a passionate advocate for humanity and truth.”

“The roots of L’Arche International lie in the first L’Arche community, founded in 1964 in Trosly-Breuil, a small village north of Paris. Encouraged by Father Thomas Philippe, a Dominican priest who became his spiritual mentor, Jean Vanier invited two people with intellectual disabilities – Philippe Seux and Raphael Simi – to leave their institution and come and live with him in a small house in Trosly-Breuil, which he named “L’Arche.”

The small community grew fast, soon welcoming new people with an intellectual disability and young people from around the world to share their lives. Unforeseen by Jean, it did not take long for people to decide to create new L’Arche communities in their own countries. And so 1969 saw the creation of the first home in near Toronto, Canada, called “Daybreak,” the first of many later communities in North America. In the 1970’s, the vision of L’Arche also inspired people to found L’Arche in India, the Ivory Coast and Honduras.”

The Canadian philosopher and Catholic social innovator, Jean Vanier, founded a community centered around people with mental disabilities, L’Arche, that has now become a global movement. To many, he is simply one of the wise men in our world today — an icon of lived compassion. We speak about his understanding of humanity and God that has been shaped across a fascinating lifetime by the likes of Aristotle, Mother Teresa, and people who would once have been locked away from society. He has spent his life practically exploring the most basic, paradoxical teachings of Christianity — notions about power in humility, strength in weakness, and light in the darkness of human existence — that resonate as Christmas draws near. -December 2007

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